Overview

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR POETRY A stunning, multimorphic work of poetry and prose about Indigenous identity mother is a work rooted in an intimate fracture: an Indigenous child is adopted out of her tribe and raised by a non-Indian family. As an adult finding her way back to her origins, our unnamed narrator begins to put the pieces of her birth family's history together through the stories told to her by her mother, father, sister, and brother, all of whom remained on the reservation where she was born. Through oral histories, family lore, and imagined pasts and futures, a collage of their community emerges, raising profound questions about adoption, inheritance, and Indigenous identity in America. Through poetic vignettes whose unconventional forms mirror the nonlinear, patchwork process of constructing a sense of self, m.s. RedCherries has crafted an indelible and utterly original work about the winding roads that lead us home.

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9780143137832

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Reviews

"Advance praise for mother: ""mother is exquisite. Through these beautiful pieces of prose and poetry, m.s. RedCherries takes us on an journey back not just to the narrators' birth family but to their cultural legacy. Part elegy and part rallying cry, while mother examines the systemic injustice done to indigenous people, this is more than just a meditation on generational wrongs. RedCherries has rendered an intimate portrait of inheritance—from the spiritual to the genetic—that is, ultimately, a testimony of empowerment in lush language that feels gorgeous and fresh."" —Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming ""This is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life."" —Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of From Unincorporated Territory [åmot] ""mother plunges the reader into Indianness in a visceral deep heartbreaking immersion. m.s. RedCherries writes with tender and powerful precision about fractured daughters coming back together with lost family in cars and beer and faith and death and love. This book is an American original."" —Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of The Great Man"

"Advance praise for mother: ""This is an extraordinary debut by an innovative new voice in Native American literature. Throughout mother, m.s. RedCherries weaves a multigenerational and polyphonic narrative that spirals across time and space to explore themes of indigenous identity, adoption, residential schools, and reservations. While there is a profound sense of loss and trauma in these pages, there is also a pulsing abundance of Indian resilience and life."" —Craig Santos Perez, National Book Award-winning author of From Unincorporated Territory [åmot] ""mother plunges the reader into Indian ness in a visceral deep heartbreaking immersion. m.s. RedCherries writes with tender and powerful precision about fractured daughters coming back together with lost family in cars and beer and faith and death and love. This book is an American original."" —Kate Christensen, PEN/Faulkner award-winning author of The Great Man"

Author Information

m.s. RedCherries received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a JD from Arizona State University College of Law. She is a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and lives in Brooklyn.

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